Hey everyone this is Shannie from Baker Creek, and today we are doing a tea
tasting. So we've picked some of our favorite fresh herbs and flowers from
the garden and we're going to be comparing them. We want to find out
what's the best, what is the number one tea plant that you can put in your
garden. So I'm gonna be comparing the flavors and we'll talk a little bit
about the plants themselves. But without much further ado, let's get steeping. So
we're ready to do our tea tasting, and the first one we've got is a Thai mint.
So this can actually be found in a range of Thai dishes like spring rolls and
things like that, but it's also a great tea plant and I love the flavor. It's
it's got a bright lightly minty flavo,r almost has a little bit of a basil note
to it. So it's a maybe half way basil, half way mint. Its mellow it's not bitter
at all. I love it. It's smooth. Next we have a golden lemon balm. And lemon balm
is one of the most incredible citrusy scented plants and I love it in my
garden. Mmm, this has a nice lemony citrus flavor but it's not too strong like it's
not like a citronella candle it's a nice mellow citrus. I love that - mellow citrusy
minty. So that's the golden lemon balm. Now this one I'm excited for. This one's
called mountain mint. This is a plant that's native to North America, and it
was one of the original early American tea plants. It has a fantastic smell mmm.
It's- it's intoxicating growing in your garden. I think this one's my favorite so
far. So this is a mild mint flavor. It's not so minty forward, it's more smooth
finish. It's- it's sweeter, a little bit sweeter than mint. Can't quite put your
finger on it. There's just something really nice about it. I think because it's a
nice smooth minty flavor. So that was the mountain mint.
Next is one of my favorite for attracting pollinators in the garden.
This is fennel. You can eat fennel bulb, you can eat its florets, you could eat
its seeds, the foliage. It's a super useful plant.
I love the licorice scent, now let's see how it is in tea. Mmm it's perfect. It's
got that nice licorice flavor. I love it. It's not too strong. That would be really
nice if it was iced on a hot day. Next we're gonna try echinacea.
So there are different colors echinacea different different varieties of
echinacea native to different parts of the country, but we've got echinacea
purpurea here. The purple flowered cone flower and I'm sure you've all heard of
the medicinal benefits of echinacea and it can be prepared fresh into a tea. I
like it it's nice and it's mild there's not too much flavor to it it. This one
is really- you're making this for its medicinal purposes because it is an
immune boosting plant. Ah another one of my favorites. This is chamomile. You see
these small flowers. Chamomile has incredible natural ability to calm the
nerves. So this is an anti-anxiety plant, or it's
it's said to be, so it has calming properties and- it tastes like apples a
little bit like pineapple, very mellow, which is perfect because it's supposed
to mellow you out. I love chamomile tea and this is a good
one. Here's one that you may not have tried before. This one's called Navajo
sunset agastache. The crop is called agastache and the variety is Navajo
sunset. So we already love it because the flowers are gorgeous, the scent is
amazing and then- ah so this is refreshing. This is definitely a tea that
I would like to have iced. It wets your whistle. I like that. It makes- it makes
you feel like you have a little bit of energy. That's bright
and floral, a little bit sweet. I really like this one this is agastache
Navajo sunset. Okay so this one maybe you've tried it-
this is spilanthes. The latin name is spilanthes, the common name is toothache
plant. We call it that because it has a natural ability to numb your mouth. So
I'm just gonna take a small sip. I'm not sure if there's much flavor to spilanthes.
I've never tried it in a tea but I do know that it has the ability to
numb your mouth, and that in antiquity it was used for toothaches. So let's give it
a try.
Wow. Okay hmm so it doesn't have much flavor
but it has a tingly feeling in your mouth, so what I would do is mix that
with a more flavorful, hmm yeah. I would mix that with a more flavorful tea for a
really cool effect, or you could play a fun prank on someone because it's
harmless. It's not gonna hurt anybody but it does leave a little bit of tingling
in your mouth. Okay so this is a marigold tea. We've got marigold leaves. You guys
know marigold- it's that famous fall flower that you see everywhere with a
beautiful bronze gold or yellow flowers and this is the foliage made into a tea.
It smells like a marigold. Mmm it's sweet. It tastes like a sweet marigold. This is
actually fantastic. This is my first time having marigold tea and I love it. Okay,
marigold tea. We got to add that one to the list. I'm gonna have that again. Alright,
so this one's called bee balm. You probably know this plant, because if you
are like most gardeners, you like to see some pollinator action in your garden. I
know I like to bring as many pollinators to the garden as possible so planting
things like bee balm is gonna make that happen.
So let's try it in tea for him because I already know I love this plant to bring
bees and butterflies to the garden, but let's see what it's what its flavor
profile is okay?
Ooh spicy this is really complex. So it starts off sweet, it has a little bit of
a minty flavor, but there's a distinct spicy kick almost reminds me of a spicy
basil. Mmm that's really interesting. I love that.
Again, this would be one that I would pair with a sweet a sweet herb and make
that as a mix, but this would be just fine on its own as well. Bee balm. So bring
the bees and the butterflies to your garden, and then enjoy some tea. Alright,
so this is called blue spice basil. Did you guys know there are so many
different kinds of basil? When I first started gardening, I thought there was
just Genovese Italian basil for making pesto. I had no idea there were so many
types. Blue spice is one that I became enamored with when I started working at
the Baker Creek gardens because its scent is over-the-top. It's unique. I like
the color of the flowers. I just think it's a little bit more ornamental than
other basils. But it's really the scent that gets me with blue spice basil-
always has. So let's try it in tea form, because I've never had this as a tea.
It's nice sweet basil flavor. I like it. Mmm yeah that's really nice. That's
that's not like drinking a cup of pesto basil tea. That's- it's a bit sweeter
that's- it's unique. Okay so this one is another favorite of
mine because I love the flavor of licorice. So this is anise hyssop and
it's got the square stem so you know it's a relative of mint and it's got
these beautiful spiked flowers. This one is absolutely loaded with pollinators in
the summer in our garden and it's really easy to grow so it definitely gets a top
choice as far as a garden plant for me. And I actually drink this tea almost
every morning back home, especially iced, so I know what I'm getting myself into.
Yeah so it's super got that licorice flavor, which is a love-hate flavor, but I
think this is a nice kind of mellow representation.It's- it's
a good strong flavor, but it's not punch you in the mouth. It's really perfectly
balanced. I love it. So anise hyssop has that nice licorice
flavor; maybe even more licorice flavor than fennel, which is kind of a plant
that's famous for that flavoring. Okay, so I've got another. This is a Thai basil.
Thai basil is another one you're going to find in your spring rolls and other
Thai cooking. It's- I just like growing this plant because it I like cooking
Thai food, so there's a million and one ways to use it. I just want to take a
moment to appreciate the fragrance of Thai basil because it's one of the most
fragrant- mmm yeah- it just volatilizes right there and it smells so good. This
is fantastic. Now this iced would be a top choice. I love Thai basil and in tea form,
it can't be beat. That's amazing okay. So this is another form of agastache. This is
agastache rose mint. So you can see the flowers are stunning- just grow it just
for that reason alone- just for the flowers. It's also loved by pollinators. I
also can't keep my nose out of this plant because it smells phenomenal. Okay
so, this one is the most floral that we've tried of all of these, even some
that have flowers directly on them. This one, I would describe as floral. It tastes
like rose big-time. Actually this tastes a lot like rose, which I like a floral
flavored tea, so this- I can't get enough of this. I need another sip. Okay
wow, rose mint agastache. That one that one's kind of tied for top. I really like
that. That is an unusual tea flavor, which I like. I haven't had that before.
So, this is the butterfly pea. I don't know if you guys have seen butterfly pea
before, it's all over Asia especially Thailand. We have a fantastic double
flowered variety that we offer. But what I love about butterfly pea is it makes
your tea into this incredible unique color. And if you guys didn't know, blue
is actually a really rare color on the floral spectrum. You don't see blue
flowers too often and so making a natural blue food dye, it's it's not that
common, so I love making a natural blue food dye. This is really fun to make. It
does a really nice mild flavor. It doesn't have a lot of flavor to it,
but what's really fantastic about this plant is its color and what I also love
is that it's actually said to be stronger than chamomile in it's calming
and relaxing properties. So this is another medicinal plant that we love. And
then finally, this is a natural sweetener. You've maybe had this come out of a
packet before. This is actually stevia guys, so if you haven't had stevia in its
leaf form or seen it in its leaf form this is what it's like to actually grow
stevia. It's a really funky plant. Now you could probably pair this plant with all
of these to sweeten these teas up. So this is a natural sweetener. I'm not sure
what this is gonna be like as a just a tea on its own. I think that if you have
a sweet tooth, it's a top choice. Yes indeed it is sweet. I've read things that
say that stevia is much sweeter than sugar, but it won't do things to your
blood sugar. It's seen as a helpful sweetener alternative and I mean you
can't really deny. This is just a plant right here, it's not highly refined or
anything like that, and it is indeed super sweet. So make that- blend this
stevia with any of these teas and you're gonna have a great blend. But now it's
time to actually choose my favorite. So I'm gonna give you guys a top three and
then I'm gonna tell you which one I choose as my number one. Okay so, number
three- my number three pick is going to have to be agastache Navajo sunset.
It's so much fun to grow, it's so beautiful in the garden, but this flavor, I just
haven't had a flavor like this before. I really like it. It's a little bit- a
little bit minty, really mellow, but there's something I can't even quite
describe. It's kind of sweet, so I love that. Number two is
butterfly pea. I have had a major crush on this plant for a long time and it's
definitely my number two just because of its medicinal qualities. I would probably
pair it with something else for flavor wise, but I really like- I really like how
it makes that beautiful blue color. And I'm going to choose my number one
favorite tea plant from our tea taste test. It's gonna have to be the agastache
rose mint because I can't deny this beautiful rose flavor.
I mean it's minty, it's rosy it's a little bit sweet. This needs no
additional flavoring of any kind. I just want a few ice cubes in here and it
would be perfect. So I hope you guys learned something today. I hope you guys
are ready to go out and dig up your next tea garden. You can find all these seeds
on- most of these seeds -I think all these seeds on the rare seeds website so check
us out on the website, get yourselves a nice little tea garden started, and we
want to hear about all of your tea adventures so thanks guys for joining us!